This paper describes the method for the fabrication of micro dot array on a plastic mold steel using DPSS (diode pumped solid-states) UV laser and wet etching process. We suggest the process of the ablation of a photoresist (PR) coated on plastic mold steel and wet etching process using solutions of various concentrations of $FeCl_3$, $HNO_3$ in water as etchant. This method makes it possible to fabricate metallic roller mold because the microstructures are directly fabricated on the metal surface. In the range of operating conditions studied, $17\;{\mu}J$ laser pulse energy and 50 ms laser exposure time, an etchant containing 40wt% $FeCl_3$, 5wt% $HNO_3$ and etch time for 45 s gave the $10\;{\mu}m$ of micro dot pattern on plastic mold steel.

The process of thermal-degradation of thin-film polymeris studied in this work for various laser sources from CW to fs. Samples composed of a thin polymer layer sandwiched between two glass plates are irradiated by the lasers and the threshold irradiance of polymer carbonization is experimentally measured. In the numerical analysis, the transient temperature distribution is calculated and the number density of carbonization in the polymer layer is also estimated. It is shown that pulsed lasers can result in more uniform distribution of temperature and carbonization than the CW laser.

The laser welding was performed for the flange joint of two overlapped coaxial circular pipes which serve as the inlet and connector pipes of STS 316L. The laser welding test finally resulted in a good penetration depth of 1.8 to 2.0 mm. On the way to get the good welding quality, two important parameters were found to be optimized. One is the focal positioning which is the offset of the laser beam focus to the exact welding seam line, which is more critical in the inner flange laser welding. When the beam spot size was deviated more than $200\;{\mu}m$ from the seam line, welding of two pipes is failed. The other is a gap size since a certain amount of gap is inevitable due to fabrication tolerance, or artificial allowances for smooth insertion of a pipe. However, it is required to restrict the gap allowance within 0.2mm to avoid undesirable undercut on a welding bead.

Experimental results for the laser shock peening of stainless steels, duplex stainless steel and STS304, for the enhancement of surface hardness are reported. A high power Nd:YAG laser (532 nm, 2nd harmonics) was used to irradiate the workpiece in water at the irradiances of 5, 10, $15\;GW/cm^2$. The surface of a workpiece was covered with Fe or Al foil for protection of the original surface and reduction of laser reflection. The laser pulse densities were varied from $25\;pulse/mm^2$ to $75\;pulse/mm^2$. In the case of the STS304, the surface hardness increased with increasing pulse density and the maximum increase of about 29% was achieved using Fe foil at $10\;GW/cm^2$ and $75\;pulse/mm^2$ conditions. The maximum increase in surface hardness of duplex stainless steel was about 8% at $10\;GW/cm^2$ and $75\;pulse/mm^2$ with also Fe foil. In the case of the Al foil, less increase of surface hardness was obtained, possibly due to the thermal expansion effect.